Hospital Leader to Know: Edward Prunchunas, CFO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
August 30, 2010
As CFO and senior vice president of finance of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Edward Prunchunas is tasked with keeping the renowned hospital financially stable and providing patients with a sound, understandable billing process. During his tenure at the hospital, he has been involved with innumerable initiatives to increase profits, improve billing and collections and incorporate technology into financial processes.
Mr. Prunchunas has served as senior vice president of finance and CFO at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center since 1998. He served as an associate director of finance and director of finance at Cedars-Sinai from 1981 to 1983 and rejoined the hospital in 1993. He has also served as CFO of Northridge (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center.
Mr. Prunchunas has placed patient satisfaction front and center since he started with the hospital in 1981. In the last ten years, he has instituted several measures to improve billing and ease the payment process for patients. In 2003, the hospital instituted a patient-friendly billing system that involved the patient financial services department reviewing the content, format and timing of all bills, statements and letters sent to patients. They made an effort to reduce bill length, improve timeliness and format the bill much like a credit card statement.
"By presenting customized, easier-to-understand information to our patients, we are beginning to build customer confidence," said Mr. Pruchunas. "This is the first step in an ongoing process to reduce confusion and improve customer service. Oftentimes, patient financial services is the last point of contact between hospital and patients, and we are continually working to ensure that patients receive great patient care and customer service from start to finish."
Mr. Prunchunas is a fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and a past president of the HFMA Southern California chapter.
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